Falls are a major cause of injury and death in the elderly. The classic study on falls suggests that 34% of falls are due to accidents and 24% are drop attacks without clear medical or external causes. The importance of visual perception factors has been proposed for drop attacks, but the hypothesis has not been tested experimentally. Recently, Tobis et al. provided supporting data for the visual-perceptual deficit hypothesis, showing that fallers relative to non-fallers have deficits in estimating the vertical and horizontal in the laboratory. This line of research will be pursued with a pilot project to study visual perception of elderly living independently in the community, placing special emphasis on studying the frequency of drop attacks in this population of non-institutionalized elderly. The pilot project will then be expanded into a large-scale prospective study of independently living elderly and their problems with falls. Contributing factors to falls that are investigated in this pilot study are the visual perception of the vertical and horizontal, field dependence as a special screening and information process mechanism of visual input, physical activity and work-related activity, medication regimen, and chronic diseases. The population studied are elderly persons who are recruited at various senior centers in Orange County and Foster Grandparents who are employed at Fairview State Hospital in Costa Mesa, California. One of the senior centers (OASIS in Corona Del Mar, California) offers a strict physical exercise program for seventy elderly. Working seniors are compared with exercising seniors and fully retired seniors on visual perception of space field dependence, number of falls within the past year, medication, and chronic physical impairment. Frequency of drop attacks are recorded within each group of elderly studied in the community. Based on the findings in comparison with previous investigations, recommendations will be developed for visual cues in the environment for the prevention of falls. Further, implications for community outreach programs for the elderly, living independently in the community, will be discussed, focusing on activity programs and classes to be conducted.